A Pilot Study of a Tablet-Based Emotion Regulation Intervention for Early Adolescents.
Christopher Houck, Crosby A Modrowski, Wendy Hadley and 5 others
PMID 35943380WHAT IT FOUND
Adolescents who completed a tablet emotion-regulation program reported stronger belief that emotions can change and more use of taught strategies.
Parent reports were mixed, and adolescents persisted less on distress-tolerance tasks.
Key findings
01Adolescents who completed the tablet intervention reported stronger belief that emotions can change, greater emotional self-efficacy, and more use of taught emotion-regulation strategies than waitlist participants.
02Intervention adolescents persisted for less time than waitlist adolescents on distress-tolerance tasks.
0337 of the 42 adolescents randomized to the intervention completed all 4 modules, and ease-of-use ratings averaged 4.7 of 5.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
This was a pilot study designed to assess acceptability and feasibility, not a definitive efficacy trial. The trial was powered only to detect moderate to large effect sizes (d > .64) at statistical significance. Analyses focused on participants who completed the intervention as intended, rather than all randomized participants. Five participants who did not complete the intervention were excluded from outcome analyses. The study examined many outcomes without accounting for multiple tests. Follow-up was only 3 months, and the study did not evaluate sexual risk behaviors or psychiatric symptoms. Participants were developmentally normative seventh graders, so some may not have had significant emotion-regulation difficulties. Parents did not take an active role in the intervention. The digital version did not include the sexual health content of the original group intervention. Baseline missingness ranged from 1.3 to 3.8%, and follow-up missingness ranged from 7.5 to 12.5%.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article lists NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the tablet program improves emotion regulation. This was a small pilot, many outcomes were examined without adjustment, and distress-tolerance tasks went in the opposite direction.